Transcript:
Hey it’s Nick Ortego here. I’m going to
show you how to do this exercise that is
an oblique crunch type of movement. And
it’s a good prep for the Turkish get up
if you can’t do the Turkish get up or thehalf getup part where you’re coming up
off of the floor. This is a good way to
develop the oblique strength and the
lat strength to be able to get
yourself up off of the floor for a half
get up. So what you want to do is start
with your feet spread about 45 degrees
about like this. Take one hand over to the
opposite thigh. You have your one arm out
the opposite arm is out about 45 degrees.
Take a breath in, keep the tongue on the
roof of the mouth and the chin slightly
tucked. And on the exhale reach to the
top of your knee and come back down.
Inhale and exhale and exhale. From the
side looks like this. Spread 45 degrees.
One hand goes to the opposite thigh, arm
goes out 45 degrees. Breath in, chin is
tucked, tongue is on the roof of the
mouth. Exhale, reach to the top that knee.
Push that elbow into the ground. Pushing
the elbow into the ground really preps
you for the half get up. Also gets the
lats activated, which are a part of the
core technically. Give that a try if
you’ve got any benefit from this video
leave a comment below. If you’d like to
get more content that’s not
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channel, then click the link that is
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Video Transcript:
Hey it’s Nick Ortego here. I’m going
to show you how to do this exercise
called swimmers, or opposite arm and leg
raises. A little bit of conditioning
drill for the lower back and upper back,
and it’s really good as a pre-workout
activator if you need to work on the
muscles that pull the shoulder blades
back, or if you need better posture. Want
to start off lying down on your stomach,
legs together, arms reach out in front
together.
Look straight ahead so the chin is not
up. The chin is kind of tucked even
though the head is lifted, and we’re
gonna raise one arm up reaching it
forward as high as you can. And it’s far
forward as you can and the opposite leg
leg stays straight. So I’m not bending my
knee and I’m reaching my toes is far
out toward the back wall as I can.
And then back down hold it up there for
a second and back down. Keeping the
chin tucked the entire time. Give that a
try and if you got any benefit from it,
leave a comment below. If you wan to get
more content not available on the blog
or the regular YouTube channel, then
click the link connected to this video
you’ll have a chance to sign up for the
Run Better Now VIP club.

Video Transcript:
Hey it’s Nick Ortego here. I’m going to
show you how to do thislower back strengthening exercise that a
lot of people call Superman.
Lie down on your stomach, the
arms are extended up by your ears. Legs
are extended like this. What you want to
do is keep your head lifted off the
floor, but also keep your chin tucked. So
that we’re not over tightening the upper
traps and the muscles behind the neck.
From there we’re going to lift
both legs and lift both arms, Being sure
not to cram the back of your neck, not to
over-tighten the upper traps. What we want to
do is use the shoulder blade retraction
to lift both arms and not the back of
the neck. We don’t want the back of theneck to get too tense so chin slightly
tucked, legs lifted, arms lifted, back down.
Give that a try and if you got any benefit
from this video, leave a comment below.
If you’d like to get content not available
on the blog or the regular YouTube
channel, then click the link connected to
this video you will have a chance to
sign up for the Run Better Now VIP club.

Video Tanscript:
Hey Nick Ortego here. I’m going to
show you an exercise that I like to call
the Superman AB activation. So you get
into the Superman position legs are
extended, arms are extended up by the
ears. Be sure that your chin is tucked,
palms are flat on the ground, legs are
flat on the ground. And what you do isbrace the abdominals. So you’re gonna
tighten up all of the abdominal muscles
as if someone were about to punch you in
the gut. And then you’re gonna press your
arms and your legs into the floor at the
same time while looking directly at the
floor, keeping the chin slightly tucked.
Kind of like this. Way I like to do it is
only five seconds and the reason it’s
only five seconds is because I want you
to make it feel as intense as you can
for those five seconds. If you go for a
long time you’re gonna naturally scale
back your force. So try to get those
muscles to work as hard as they can for
that five seconds. You may be able to
somewhat lift your hips and ribs off of
the floor if you’re strong enough, maybe.
But if you can’t you’re still getting
the effect like this. Alright that’s it.
Give that a try and if you got any benefit
from that video then leave a comment
below. if you’d like to give more content
not available on the blog or the regular
YouTube channel then click the link that
is connected to this video you will have
a chance to sign up for the Run Better Now
VIP club.

Video Transcript:
Hey it’s Nick Ortego here. I’m going to show you how to do this exercise called the prone Cobra. It’s good for activating muscles in the upper back that retract and depress the scapula keeping
your body and good posture. If you want to improve your posture, or you need better activation in those muscles before your workout give this one a try as a warm-up or as a strength drill. So we’ll start off prone. Lie down on your stomach arms are out to the sides. We’re gonna keep the legs down, lift up chest, lift up the arms, bring the arms down by your side. Turn the thumbs up to the sky with the palms out. So not thumbs up to the sky internally rotating but thumbs up to the sky externally rotating rotating the arms out like this. Lift the chest, lift the head, and keep the chin tucked. Very important that you keep the chin tucked even though the head is lifted, so that we’re not creating tightness and tension in the upper traps. I’m trying to keep length in the back of the neck, activate the shoulder blades, the lower and middle traps. Shoulder blades come back. Continue to breathe, you want to hold those for 10 seconds. A good drill is to try to do or work up to 10 times 10 seconds. Give that a try. You got any benefit from this video leave a comment below. If you’d like to get more content that’s not available on the blog or the regular YouTube channel, then click the link that is connected to this video, and you’ll have a chance to sign up for the Run Better Now VIP club.

Transcript:
Hey it’s Nick Ortego here. I’m gonna
show you how to use parallettes. These
are parallettes that I’ve made
myself with PVC. they’re roughly nine or
10 inches high, made them with one and a half-inch PVC pipes. I’ve got another video showing
you how to make these that I will link
to in the description of this video. I’ll
teach you how to do push-ups with these parallettes. What
you want to do is place them parallel
with each other like this. Your width can
vary from right at shoulder width to a
little wider. From there place your hands
on the bars, go into the top of a push-up
position. Be sure that your your hips,
shoulders and knees are lined up. So you
don’t want your hips to sag like this and
you don’t want your hips higher than the
line between the shoulders and knees.
Just like that, take a big breath in on
the way down and then exhale and push up.
This allows you to get a greater range
of motion going into some shoulder
extension here. Just be sure that you can
move your shoulder blades back with your
arms. Be sure that you have the range of
motion so that you’re not trying to push
the elbows back while the shoulder goes
forward. So it should look like this
where the shoulder blade comes back as
well, and not like this where the
shoulder blade goes forward and the
elbow goes back like this. Here’s the
critical point my shoulder blades go
back. If I don’t have the flexibility to
do that my shoulder blades start to roll
forward which is not good for the
shoulder mechanics. So really work on
your pectoral muscle flexibility. If
going with the full push up position
a little too hard now you can go from
the knees and that looks like this.
Breathe in on the way down, exhale on the
way up and just be sure you have the
range of motion. Be sure that you’re
you’re using the shoulder blades coming
back to extend your range of motion and
not going into kind of a hunched forward
and shoulder blade rolling forward when
your elbows go back elbows back. But the
shoulders go back as well really
stretching the pecs out. You got any
benefit from this video? Then leave a comment below. If you’d like to
get content not available on the
blog or the regular YouTube channel, you
can click the link that is connected to
this video you will have a chance to
sign up for the Run Better Now VIP
Club.

Video Transcript:
Hey it’s Nick Ortego here. I’m going to
show you how to use this little device.
It’s called the pelvic clock and it’s
made to do pelvic motions in a nice easy
gentle restorative way. But I’m going to
show you how to use it to really work
the abdominal muscles with some
intensity. So what you do is you place
the pelvic clock right underneath your
sacrum. That’s the bone that’s at the
base of the spine. It’s part of the
pelvis. You can see this part is shaped
like a sacrum and the 12 o’clock marking
is gonna go top, six o’clock goes at the
bottom. So just lie down on my back like
this and then lift the hips up find the
proper placing. Then just to get a
feel for it, tilt the pelvis around a
little bit: 12 o’clock, 6 o’clock, 9 o’clock, then I’m
going to lift my knees up now. There’s a
lot of freedom of motion at the pelvis.
For this exercise what we’re gonna do is
tilt the pelvis into the 12 o’clock
position, so there’s a little bit of a
posterior pelvic tilt that will activate
my abdominal muscles. I’m gonna keep the
pelvis in that posterior tilt as I let
one foot touch the ground and come back
up and then the other foot touch the
ground. And come back up if that’s really
easy I’m gonna extend the foot out.
The best way to breathe here: let’s
take a nice inhale and then exhale let
the air seep out when the foot is as far
out as you can get it. We want to be
mindful of is that you keep the pelvis
and a posterior tilt that keeps the
abdominals engaged. As I extend my leg
out but pelvis is gonna want
to tilt this way, anterior tilt. It’s
gonna want to go to the six o’clock
position on the pelvic clock and my job
is to keep it tilted back in the 12
o’clock position as I alternate
extending legs out. Breathe in, breathe
out. Farther I extend my leg the more
work I’m gonna give the abdominals. What
I want to be sure that’s happening is
that my abs are holding the pelvis is
place in that posterior tilt even as my
leg goes out. If I start to tilt the
other way, like that, that’s an indicator
to not push my leg out so far. Try a few
repetitions on each side first.
Give that try and maybe even work up to
20 or 30 repetitions. starting with maybe
six to eight on each side. If you got
any benefit from this video, leave a
comment below. If you’d like to get more
content that’s not available on the blog
or the regular YouTube channel, then click
the link that’s connected to this video
you’ll have a chance to sign up for the Run Better Now VIP club.